The Book of Enoch
by Tigracho
Summary: AR1:"No hope is left for the righteousness in a world were vices are not only tolarated, but promoved" I m done with just witnessing, I shall not run way from my past anylonger!. Heavens!,Let me fullfil my new role as the blade of retribution!(Still looking for a good pic)
1. Travel

**Before Reading, I just want to make sure this:**

 **I do not own the content or credit of the Drakengard franchise. Drakengard 3 belongs only to Yoko Taro, his production team and Square Enix. So the same I say about the real Book of Enoch, which is an ancient religious book, from which I´m just taking some inspiration.**

* * *

Many, many moons ago, in a continent surrounded by the sea from north, south, and east, the humanity was enduring an age of terrible depravicy and hardship since the fall of the last empire known to man. The diferent comunities and villages across the land were agruped according to the región which they were located:

There was the Land of the Sands, located at southeast of the continent, facing the southwest sea. It was an arid desert devoid of almost all water and plant-life, where only the strong and smart could afford to survive.

There was the Land of the Seas, located in the middle of the southeast Sea, close to the Land of the Sands. It was constituted by two main main islands surrounded by others of lower size, whose inhabitants used to live from the fishing that the southeast Channel offered.

The Land of the Montains, Located at the west of the continent, limiting with The land of sands through the east, and the land of the Forests through the north. It was a región dominated by high terrain and a montain range submersed in an eternal Winter, a place whose adversity matched the one of it´s eastern neighbor land.

Then there was the Land of the Forests, located at the north of the continent, limiting with the famous Mediterranean Sea. It was a región exuberant with vegetal and animal life, as well old, haunted locations, forgotten by time.

And then, there was the Iberian región, a peninsula located at the farthest point of the northeast of the continent. It was región who had contact with both the southeast and Mediterranean Seas, as well with the Deep Blue, a vast region of endless wáter extending to where the sun dissapears. Also, it was the location of the legendary cathedral city. . .

Each land, except for the Iberian región, was dominated by powerful and cruel magic users, coronating themselves as kings of their own region. These lords, drown in depravicy and pursuing their own interests, held and even enforced the misery and depravicy of their own people. No one had the guts to oppose these cruel rulers, due as soon a protest or a cry was heard, the instigator was inmediatly executed, tortured, or even worse.

These cruel magicians. . . their heart knew nothing but selfish indulgence. They were nothing but jailors of their own breathen.

But then one day, five beautiful goddness known as intoners descended from the sky, and overthrown the corrupt lords of the land. Having saved the people from their evil misdeeds, each intoner proceeded to take command each land of the continent, technically inhereting the belongings, wealth and army from each lord in their respective land.

And lastly, the cathedral city, the city without ruler since these last years, was only deserving of the most noble and intelligent of the Intoners

Each intoner ruled with relative prosperity and justice compared to the vicious and malevolent rulers of the past, aiming to lead the next generation to an age of prosperity and progress. The world starting to finally see a beam of light in the dark future.

Until one day, a person known as Zero, the sixth intoner, attempted against the life of the rest of the Intoners, by assaulting them in the cathedral city during a meeting, along with the companionship of Michael, a Holy dragon and autoproclamed "the strongest one". Fighting and slaughtering countless amount of men and beasts without mercy, Zero finally reached to her sisters.

And a battle begin. Zero was more powerful than any of her younger sisters, but fighting against five mighty foes, who themselves carried the power of song proved to be a real challenge. Despite her effords, said battle ended in stalemate for both parties, althought it was more than a loss than a stalemate for Zero, due to the fact that she had lost his companion Michael and her left arm at the fire of Gabriel, one of her sisters´s invoked daemon, One.

Said events had ocurred one year ago. And now, the Cathedral city, once a land who promised peace, prosperity, and the future of the continent, was now again a battlefield.

As if said city only purpuse was to attract conflict and death and misery.

Across the streets, many soldiers, knights and tamed creatures and monsters are laying dead on the cold ground, having been evisrated as result of attemping to hold off the match of the "Traitor" and her retinue. At least, that´s how they knew Zero and her group of disciples.

Having waited almost a full year to recover, Zero, along with the reincarnation of the her companion Michael, The hatching known as Mikail, resumed her hunt upon the intoners, her five little sisters. After slaying and taking the powers of Five, Four, Three and Two in their respective lands, Zero directed her way towards the cathedral city, where her last sister, One, was waiting. Along the way, she also had took the disciples from each one of her sisters. The intoners used their disciples to make efective use of their powers without losing control, albeit they ignored this fact.

Said invocations called through the power of the song were called Angels, beings who were, according to the rumors, creations and servants of the gods.

Althought Zero had use of the disciples for. . . more primitival reasons. After all, all the Disciples were men. Eventually, Zero would make her way towards the Cathedral, where One was preparing for her last stand in her palace. But things had gotten a dramatic point.

At some point during her push towards the old cathedral, after Mikail had to separate from the party in order to drag the attention of Gabriel, the daemon dragon, Zero´s party were caught in a trap made by an unknown commander figure, forcing Zero from her disciples and continue alone, as she could feel from her flower-eye that time was running short. Because she had decided long ago that no sacrifice should be spared in order to achieve her objective, she steeled herself and left behind her disciples to dealt with the enemy, knowing also that soon they would no longer be useful.

Besides, she was confident that those four fool would be able to handle their own at least before their ended and reverted to their original, useless forms. At least, that was what was telling herself as son resumed her push towards the cathedral.

Little she knew that her sister One, this time, had made a plan to defeat her. Also, she even less knew that she had done exactly what the unknown commander wanted . . .

* * *

In the great hall of the Cathedral, atop the montain that protected the city from north, A great door was opened. She was there, sitted in her throne and reading a book, in the other side of the hall, and Zero herself was just in the door.

"Whatcha readin?" Zero asked uninterested, as she started walking towards One. Even after having token so much time, even after being so close to the fullfilment of her objetive, she decided to kill some time before take out on her sister.

"Ah, Zero" She said sarcastically, as she expected the presence of her so-hated sister for a while ago. The screams of dread, the sound of the clash of metals and chopping of the flesh of her soldiers, and even the smell of blood were perceived by One thanks to her ever highly developed senses.

Responding to her sister´s questions, as giving herself one last possible chance to chat politelly and perhaps iluminate her sister in something, as a certain someone had suggested before, One responded coldly " Just a record of life from the Cathedral"

"A record of life?"

"Yes" Then One redirects her sight towards the one eyed woman, her smell was as if she had just took a bath in blood "Zero, Don´t you feel curious about this city?"

"Why should care. . ?" Despite the answer, One pushed foward with her talk.

"Is said that this city is where all the magic of the world originated. Spell were crafted here that were even beyond our abilites as intoners. This place was where magicians and intelectuals from diferent parts of the world learned the secret of magic, and soon, a new flourish civilization aroused" Zero was still keeping her sister to talk, for some reason, she felt interested in hearing the story " But then. . . " It was at tha moment that One stopped reading her book. Throwing it aside, she stood up"Something ocurred, something that made dissapear everysingle inhabitant of this city. Men, Women, Child, eldery, Animals, Beasts and other Non-humans. . . everyone dissapeared like nothing, without any trace, as if they had never existed before. . .what do you believe that happened to them?"

After moment of silence and staring, Zero grunted and responded.

"Who the hell cares? If they ended up blowing themselves with some magic, or simply screw themselves with some sort mumble-jumbo spell, then they got it well deserved for messing around with something they didn´t understood. As for you. . " Then she rose her blade against One, her only good eye and body filled with bloodlust again"You can bet you won´t be so fortunate to have an end like those fools, One. Time´s up, so, now that I responded your useless question, why don´t you just hold still, so I can kill fucking you for once!?" She gritted her teeth as she rushed towards her sister at great speed. One armed herself with her chakram on her right, she prepared herself for a battle agaist Zero.

* **Clash***

One gets taken back by the strike between the blades, almos stumbling. Recovering her footing on the ground, she slides away from Zero´s thrust, and then procedes to block another furry of attacks from Zero.

"What? Not gonna use your magic or something!?" Zero delivered the mock as she made One hold back with one slash. The hit was blocked, but One could feel obvious diference of strenght between her and Zero. Moving in zig-zag, Zero launched her next strike on One´s side, but to her surprise, she ducked below, making a sweeping kick that throwed her out balance. One proceded and slashed Zero on the front, at the same time she backstepped, she avoided the being cut deeper, but the wound was still there.

"There is no need to waste flowers on the pig´s nourishment!" Despite the mock, which only served to infury Zero, One knew well about the dire situation she had decided to sumerge in, as her sister rushed at her again. In terms of physical abilites, Two was probably the most fit of the six, with Zero being close to her. In fact, if she had to place herself, it would be at the middle place, just before four and three, who were slouchs.

Also, Melee combat wasn´t definely her forte, magic was, but she needed to reserve all in order to proceeded to the next step of her plan, and calling Gabriel was unfortunely out of question, as he also had a key role to fullfil in said plan she had designed. Even if she attempted to summon another Angel, that would end in a fatal failure, as Zero was keeping a constant pressure on her, promising a deadly strike should she make a mistake in her defense or attack.

Doing a flip in the Air, Zero used both hands to grip his sword and land a strike on One. Fortunely for her, she rolls the way out of the attack.

"Hold still you little. . !" Zero, for the other hand, was trying to concentrate in the fight and not let her anger to dominate her, but it was so frustrating to see her sister to escape from her reach everytime she had the chance to strike her down, clearly showing she had got slighly better in combat. Zero had gotten grumpy since she saw how the party was forced to split(again) And now, One´s mocking, her elusiveness fighting, without even trying to use magic or her song, was making her losing her marbles-

´ _Wait. . She is not using magic at all . .´_ Zero knew that One´s strenght radicated in the use of magic. Seeing her not enchanting or using her power of song in any moment ticked her off. Also, she hadn´t realized about this before, but One had been playing at the defense all this time. Sure, if she let a opening, she would approach, but with caution, not fully investing all her movement in her attacks.

All of this builded in her a bad feeling. . . and cursed mentally for not having put attention at this before.

After a few minutes of clashing steels and failed slashes, they stopped. Covered in wounds and bruishes and seeing at the each other with burning hate, the battle looked even for the both intoners, but it was obvious for Zero´s own superior speed and strenght didn´t helped a lot to overwhelm One´s defensive and elusive fighting style. _´ Just how, how she manages to predicts my moves anyways?´_

For the other hand, One was starting to reach her limits of her physical endurance. Sure, her endurance, vitality and toughness was above the human standars, but Zero´s was even further. She could only hold off Zero for so long until-.

"Fancy moves One. . . And I thought you just were only slouching back with books in a chair" One´s was taken aback by her response for a minute, but she inmediatly shock it off, and returned to her with a tone of confidence, panting between words.

"You think . . . .I wouldn´t . . . be ready. . . for your arrival?" Then One heard a certain sound coming from far her location. Fast steps, moving at the limit of the human speed, was moving towards them. She smiled, relief was starting to build up in her chest, but she throwed off those feelings"No. . . you have no idea. . . how much I had to suffer in order to reach your level. . "

No, first she needed to complete the plan and secure victory, then she could, at least for a moment, take a time to relax. However said thoughts had made her display something.

"What´s with that stupid smile in on your face huh!?" Zero grew angrier than before, the vision of one smilling in the middle of a battle to the death had ticked her off.

"Who knows. .?" She shrugs in a vague, yet teasing tone of voice. Keeping Zero unaware the surprise was a critical factor in the eficienty of the plan "Maybe I have faith in myself. Maybe I´m confident in that I´m going to live " Even so, One boasted a little bit. The sight of her plan about to give fruit was, in a way she never knew before, stimulating her.

"Going to live? Have faith? Sorry to interrupt, but the only thing you can get hope for is that you will end with my goddamed blade across your bloody heart!" As soon One´s saw the door from afar starting to opening a little, she decided to give some final words to an already pissed Zero in order to distract her.

" Zero!, tell me!" The exclamation made Zero freeze for a second"If you could have grasped the chance, would you have wanted things, all this bloodbath, end in a diferent way?" The question itself went like an arrow towards her thoughts. What the hell she was talking about? This wasn´t about wharever doing things diferent or not, but about what had to be done.

"Maybe. . . You and your sisters could have commited suicide for me that time we met, so I hadn´t got to deal with all those cannon folder and trash you and your sisters had as soldiers and beasts . . . "

"So you admit not regreting nor wanting to change anything until now!?" This question, despite the true intention, carried the honest sentiment of One.

During a few seconds, her mind made a revision of all her life until now, and she realized something.

There was only one thing she regreted. It had nothing to do with the intoners whatsoever, but it was something she still beated herself up until this day: The death of Michael, the only one who. . .

 _´But it doesn´t matter anymore._ _Mihkail has gotten stronger, so I guess we are even, Michael´_

" ***sigh***. . . fine, wanna know!? There is something I regret, you know, and that is having not kill all of you, you stupid intoners, that first time we met in this shithole of city!"her burly-bold voice returned with full strengh, repressing any sentiment of remorse or sadness, as her deed had to be done with the most of the chills" Still!, in the end this changes nothing!. This isn´t about what I want only, this is about what must be done. What needs to be done for my sake, for your sake, and for the sake of everyone. You don´t know about it, and I don´t need to think about it. . ." Then she pointed her blade towards One"Just stay still so I can give you a quick, painless death !" And she charged,

Very well, the most dangerous part of the plan was starting to intiate now, with one Word:

 **"GENESIS!"**

 ***STAB!***

And then, Zero was pierced through her stomach by a powerful arrow. Blood splatered the floor. The sudden shout from One´s exited lungs had taken her by surprise.

"W-ha . . . what´s-" she moved her eyes to her midsection, staring at the pointy tab erupting from inside her guts. Soon, she started to feel dizzy, and lose all sense of balance.

"Behold Zero, as for now, I will make sure you redeem yourself from all the sins you have commited, wharever you agreed with it or not!" One acclaimed, as she went towards the book she throwed earlier.

At the door, the shooter, covered in a large cloak with Hood from before had just done the shot. No longer wearing his hood, he proceded to walk towards the pair, eyes still locked on Zero, who was stumbling as result of her wound.

Turning to see his aggresor. The angry-pained face of Zero contortionated for confusion just before tensing in a expression of mild shock and disbelief. Then became filled with wrath as she shot a glare full of poison at her attacker

"Y-you. . . no. . .nonono! what are you doing here. . . you. . .you. . .YOU ARE SUPPOSE TO BE FUCKING DEAD! ROTING WITH THE MAGGOTS!"

And so, Zero faced her retribution, ironically. And so, all what have you just read didn´t exactly developed in the way as you initialy thought it happened.

 **The Book of Enoch**

* * *

" _Even broken, a cup of glass can be still be beautiful to repair. Why humans shouldn´t be?"_

 _Jericho Holemberg, "The wicked man"_

" _And then, he proceeded to spy the village, knowing that their attemps of being united would fail, that they would end up turning against each other. He finally accepted his true nature, his morbid tastes. It allowed him to appreciate a unique beauty, only known to some men of the past: The beauty of tragedy. Such end, such emotions, it would keep him alive and keep him moving foward, in world where sense of reason was falling and hell was rising. The end_ "

The man had just closed the book, being sit on a bed where a children was laying. Said bed was one among many inside the dorm room, where children of the same age of boy who was listening the tale were asleep

The man was no father, nor he had responsability over the children, but he enjoyed to tell histories and tales of diferent genre to them, from diferent sources across the world, and see their reactions. Sometimes they laughted, sometimes they got facinated, the reactions were mix. Reading was the only hobby he had outside of his job.

" Daaa, what a boring endin-!" The child, of red hair and chestnut eyes, had raised his voice, and thus, the hand of his tutor at the next moment was covering it, preventing it from waking up the other children.

"Shhhh. . . you should respect your peer´s rest. Do not raise your voice!" He whispered. After removing his hand from the red-headed kid, the kid pouted in annoyence due to the action. Still, he expressed his opinion.

" I said. . . what a boring ending, I thought Ibrahim would end with a happy ending, like finding a new family, or marrying a pretty princess" At the opinion, the man could only sadly smile

"Not everyone has the same likes, little one" The man said to the child, as it was forbiden to say the names of the children" Some people find happiness in love or wealth, some people find it in things such as power or knowledge. And then there some people who simply enjoy themselves with the missery of the others. This was the tale of a man who, after losing everything he had, eventually discovered himself, at the end of his journey that he was truly this kind of person"The red-haired kid could only yawn at her tutor´s review.

"Ibrahim was surely a weirdo, but. . . why he didn´t realized about what he wanted sooner? He was smart"

"Because, despite his intelligence, he couldn´t bear the thought of being a twisted person, and it was all because of his morals: Ibrahim was a noble, the firstborn of a distint and benign family, who followed the designs of their church, and took care of their subjects. Justice, kindness, loyalty, he was educated under these three morals as principles for most of his life, the same ones who hindered his compresion of his real nature, of what he wanted, as these dark impulses were agaist everything he was taught. Only when he started to wander throught the world after losing his home., he started to put aside these values, and even question them"

"Ahhh. . " The child responded in realization. Then the man deviated his eyes from the child´s, staring at the moon across a nearby window

"However, being governed by your desires can also work agaist you, but there is only so much we humans can repress, without losing our sense of reality. . ." The man finally ended.

The kid then lied down to the bed, both hands behind his nape, and eyes staring the ceiling, while meditating about what he was told. He felt. . .weird.

"I don´t get it. . . no matter how I think about it, I don´t get why someone would be happy with just staring the suffering of others. . ." The adult alongside him chuckled internally. The struggle of a kid trying to understand an obscure piece of literature was always amusing.

Considering the stuff the children of the "orphanage" had to deal with a daily basis, plust the fact that this "little one" had more to bear, he still felt surprised at seeing that the kid reasoning and curiosity hadn´t disminished.

In hindsight, it creep him out. It creep him out how "natural" he was despite all.

"Don´t think of it too much, just accept that not everyone has the same vision of "happiness" in this world, as well not everyone is exactly the same as you"

"Mhh . . . okay, I guess you are right, Sam" " **Sam** " was the nickname the red-head had decided to use to refer to his tutor and inmediate superior "Althought I envy that guy, Ibrahim. Having the chance marry a pretty princess and leaving her behind . . ."

"Do you really want to meet a princess?" The man asked out of amusing curiosity

"N-no, not really. . . well, not like I can do it, right? goes agaisnt the **"rules"** "

"Yes, it sure itdoes sadly" The man reaffirmed. But then the kid rose his face with a new, uncaring smile.

"But I´m fine with it! Because I have you to tell me histories about it, and I have my friends here! There is no need for me to look for stuff outside!" The "Little one" was person who found hard to be depressed or sad. "Besides, I can always see them in my dreams . . . _ ***Sigh*like. . .**_ Right. . Now. . " The boy covered in his blankets, and closed his eyes, and a new subject was brought" Tomorrow is the initiation, right, Sam?"

"Yes, you must rest well and be ready at the first light along your peers. Otherwise-"

"Yeah, yeah, another round in the " **Pinwheel** " for getting late. Everyone will be early, I. . _***Sigh***_ . . assure you that no one would want be get dragged there" The man, satisfied with the answer, stood up from the bed, and started to move towards the door.

" night then, little one. May your dream be revitalizing" But then he stopped in dead tracks after hearing the voice of the "Little one", asking him.

"Umh, Sam?"

"Yes?" He turned towards the bed, a little unnerved at his call.

"Could you please tell me another history tomorrow?" The man saw him for a while, his eyes serious, debating if it was wise to keep doing the norcturnal meetings like this one.

"Sure, I will bring you another story, fresh and interesting tomorrow, now rest" And then he closed the door.

And never kept a promise ever again.

* * *

S _omewhere in the paths of a big valley, land of the montains, crossing border to the land of the sands. April 998._

" _Fala boska iet that sha! Bolniska-na-la. . ._ " A Young man was singing a little song in an unknown language, with a stupid smile on his face. He was lying on the plains closely to a soil path, not caring about the grass caresing his body nor the bugs getting inside his clothes. He was actually wearing a buttoned dark leather vest with a red-line in form of an Y in the center, and a collarbone that extended to the middle of his pectorals. A dirty, yellow sleeved shirt was seen below the vest. Wearing green pants of wool and brown skin shoes, he had let visible the chains of a necklane rounding his neck and converging in his chest, covered by the shirt and vest.

Said young man was also drunk. If the almost unintegable song and horrible odor were prove enought, a single person could said that the young man was nothing but a dirty vagrand who had just hit the score yesterday, with tons, tons of alcohol at night.

 _ ***GROOOWWWLL!***_

" _So hungry. . . ahh!. . . why I had to leave that village. .. . Wait, how did I left the village? uhhh, I don´t remenber . . .great, now I will die hunger here. . . and alone. . . with no marrying. And as a virgin, meh. . .. . I´m so hazy and drunk. . ._

 _Well, I wouldn´t like it in a ever better way. .. . . but I don´t think I can move for a while . ."_

 _ ***GROOOOWWLLL!** *_

"Uhhh. . . " The sounds of his stomach, this time, was strong enought to make him flinch of pain. After all, Alcohol was a failure as a meal" _Maybe. . .maybe I should rest a little . . .longer and then look for food. . ."_

And so, still drunk in his own right, the young man failed to notice how a wheelbarrow was getting close. Their ocuppants hadn´t detected the young man layed upon the grass yet. They were five sisters, each of them wore their outfit with a cloak of diferent colour, but each of them had the same detail: A black collarbone with a golden, circular insignia. They were in her way towards the land of sand

"Look, there someone over there!" A blue short-haired girl, with eyes as blue as her short and messy hair perceived the man first, loosing the hold of the wheelbarrow she was carrying. She had the number " **II** " engraved in her forehead, and wore a blue vest which exposed her midriff, a blue short skirt with a black belt entangled around the hips. Most of her body was covered by a blue cloak.

"He doesn´t look too good! I think we should check!" The one claiming it was a girl who had twin pony tails made by two teal hairclips with her brown hair, and a " **IV** " engraved in her forehead. She wore a green shirt with yellow lines and a collarbone with a short white skirt. All of that was covered by a large dark green cloak. Her eyes were green.

Said girl was the first ran inmediatly with visible worry, followed upclose by most of their sisters. Finally, everyone stepped aside in order to leave the wisest of her sisters to examinate the man. She had a slighly pale blonde-semi short hair with red eyes, and wore a white one piece-sleeved tunic that reached to where her thights began, leaving exposed her legs. Along her waist a brown belt holded a bandoleer in her left hip, and her collar bone and upper part of her back was covered by a small, grey poncho. Perhaps the most flamboyant of her attire was her cloak: It was red with black borders.

In the forehead of the pale blonde, the number " **I** " was engraved.

"How is he, One? Is he alive, is he dead?" This time, one of the sisters had asked out of curiosity. She was another blond but of long hair, with a busty chest and eyes as gold as her mane, resalted by her black vest with a cleavage in the middle, and a yellow cloak. She had the number " **V** " engraved in the forehead. One had reached a conclusion before even getting close to the individual, preterminated by the stench she had catched with her nose a little while before.

"He is ok, just drunk. . Really drunk" One covered her noise, the odor was now stronger than before due to the fact that she was in front of the source.

"Drunk. . .?" Two asked. She had heard the word before, but she couldn´t remenber where. . .

"A state of haziness and stupidity caused by ingesting too much alcohol" One inmediatly answered. Then Two, the blue-haired girl, gasped in realization

"Ahhh! You mean he drink too much of that drink you say we should never taste?" One nodded to the blue haired girl"Wow, it looks awful!"

 _ ***GROOOOOOOOOOOOOOWLLLLLLLL!** *_

"Ugghh. . ." The young man had just winced in hunger, a reaction not unnoticed by the five little girls.

"Looks like he is starving. Oh, poor mister. I don´t think I wouldn´t be able to endure such torture!" Said Five.

"Well if only you hadn´t your boobs getting bigger and bigger. . ." Muttered four, with a glint of jealousy.

"Should we . . .helping him?" This time, a long-purple haired girl with stoic eyes of the same color as the hair asked, showing some sort of dificulty in expressing words. Inside the purple cloak she wore a gothic lolita purple dress, with a buttoned lilac and sleeved shirt on the chest. In the left side of her hair she had a clearly was the most introverted of the sisters, but she knew well that the young man was starving. Or at least that he was hungry. She had the number " **III** " engraved in her forehead.

"Lalilulelo~ . . Lalilulelo~ . . Lalilulelo~. . ." He started to mumble, earning the odd stare of the sisters, except for one of them.

"I say we bring him with us! He looks like someone funny. And maybe he could work as a servant for us~!" The busty blonde said, already charmed by the non-sense the man was saying in his alcoholic coma.

However, One stood in her guard: How many times they had met people in necesity only to find out they were criminals and scumbags ready to backstab and sell out anyone dumb enought to pick them? She did felt some compasion for the man, but first came the safety of her sisters.

"Serve us? . . . Five, we can´t take avail of someone who is just starving!" The pony tailed exclament, albeit a little exagerated. But she was right, it was not right to do that.

"We must be cautious, for all we know he could be a bandit, or a murderer. Taking him with us could compromise us" Then had One declared. And it was actually a really good argument"Still, he could be just a normal peasant who went too far with his drink, so we can´t just keep a blind eye to his condition. My sisters, I want to hear your opinions, Should we take care of him, or should we leave give our back to him?"and then One´s sight scanned her sisters, expecting the reponses.

"I say we take him with us" The busty blonde assured without a hint of doubt. The young man, despite

"I agree, but only in order to aliviate his condition, not as a servant!" Said Four in opposition to Five.

"I. . I´m not so sure. . . I. . ."The blue haired girl, Two, doubted. She liked and wanted to help people the best she could do, but wasn´t used how to deal with people who could be criminals or not. Normally, One should decide and everyone else would follow. Why she was asking for the opinions of her sisters now? "I don´t want to leave someone die. . But if he is a bandit then. . .I-I don´t know"

"Worry not, Two" One assured to her blue haired sister, putting a hand in her sister´s left shoulder"We have the means of restrain his movements. I can assure you he won´t harm us if that concerns you" Two´s expression then relieved a bit.

"We do? . . .If that´s the case, then I agree with Five and Four. We should help him" One smiled, now she wanted to know the opinion of her last sister.

"Ok, Three, what do you-" But none of the sisters realized until now that the Long-violet haired girl had got physically close to the stranger.

Much, much close . . .

" He smells funny. . . strange" Three was kneeled next to the young man. Her face so close to the face of the fallen, a sight from stoic violet orbits was contemplating the male´s face. As expected, Four jumped, leting out a squee.

"No, Three! Get off from him before your clothes get drenched with alcohol´s smell!" And so Four started to separate her sister from the stranger

"Mhh, I think that counts as a yes, One ~" Five, the Busty blode assured.

"So it seems. Two, bring the rope from the wheelbarrow. It should be stored inside the box with three lines carved"

"Ok dokey, One!" Then Two ran back to their transport.

* * *

"Mhhp. . . ***sigh*** . . wha. ."As the young man found out , he could feel something squezing his hands" huh . . .what!the fuck is this!?"

"Swear!" A female voice, which the young man associated with a young girl, had answered.

The young man had just awoken in the middle over a floor of wood, along some other supplies such as vegetables, clothes and herbs. While he felt somewhat relieved to see at last something editable, his outburst was because of the rope tying his hands from behind. Now with his yells of surprise, he had managed to alert everyone on the wheelbarrow, and thus stopping it´s course.

After parking the primitive vehicule behind a tree, at a few meters from the soil path, the five sisters proceeded to do his deed: Two and Four lifted a big cauldron to a place, while Five and Three only carried some cabagges, potatoes sacks, and bags with a distinguishble smell that the young man identified as meat

"Well, well, well, looks like my biggest fears have become a reality: Little miss bandits are real now" The young man said as he observed how two girls were maniobrating the iron cauldron to move it to outside. At the statement, Two wanted to answer, to deny that they were not theft or murderers, but One had specificaly told her, as to the others, to not talk him or even look at him. Everyone carried her task with ease in order to settle up a little camp.

The young man could only sigh at the vision of their little captors "Aren´t these times so bad that even childs have become criminals. . .?"

"You are also suspect of being that too, _mister_ " A voice had reached from behind the young man. Lifting and turning his head, he could see how a young girl of red eyes and short blond hair was sitted in the driver seat, legs crossed, seeing him with cold and contemplative stare, as if she was examinating.

One had managed to sneak behind the captive, and specificaly seated there in order to give herself a position of superiority in front of their captive, a factor she believed would help in the interrogation that was coming.

The young man easily noticed the air of arrogance and righteousness from the little girl. It was something he used to perceive in most nobles.

"Well. . ."The young man twisted his body, and managed to seat on the wood floor, facing One" I´m not guilty of _kidnapping_ at least, you know~?" He teased, letting out a little chuckle before adopting a more serious demeanor, as he realized the girl was stiff in her face motions, indicating she was meaning bussiness.

"Answer, why were you inconscious on the ground close to the road? What happened to you before?" One had a bit of a guess what their captive was, or at least, what he had done before, but she still carried with the interrogation, just to be sure.

"Why a bandit should care about the past of their victims?" His response was more of defiance rather than protecting something: He didn´t like to give the others the satisfaccion. One was getting used to these kind of chat, as she and her sisters had dealt with thugs and thefts before.

"That´s right. Why should a bandit care? shouldn´t this excuse us of being bandits? as if we were a bunch a such, then you would have been killed already, and we would had left your lifeless body devoid of all their possesion. . .not like you have many, I can see. . ."

"Maybe you are right. . . maybe you are just a bunch of little girls and that´s it. . ." But then, his face contortioned in a furious frowl" Or maybe you want me to spill where I became drunk in the first place. . ." He said calmly and stern, taking One aback"You can´t trick me, _bandit!_ "

" _ ***Sigh***_ " Then rose her voice, but not to the point of losing control"We are not bandits! Did you saw my sisters carry any kind of weapon?" at that statement, the young man took a few seconds before answering back.

She had just revealed to him that they were a family. Combined with the fact that they wore expensive clothes, as well a golden insignia, he started to make his own assumptions.

"Ha! then this could mean you are magicians!" This ended up shocking One, whose eyes grew wide and her mouth opened at the statement."Magicians don´t have any need for weapons, they can use the black and white arts of magic to their needs"Of course, all this was being made up by the young man, only to screw with her petite captor "In fact, I never heard or seen petite bandits such as yours, but I did heard, and seen magic users among bandits. I´m sure you are using some sort of magic trick to make me see you as little girls so I can drop my guard and reveal information, you wrenches!" The hardiness of his voice, the angry expression on his face, makes One flinch in then felt how something was starting to press her chest, making her lose all her cold semblance . She felt bad, as if she had commited an horrible crime, except that she didn´t, but the feeling was still there. Her cheeks were getting red, and her eyes were starting to feel watery our of sudden.

Then the young man bursted in laughter.

"Hahahahaha!, Oh my. . D-did you really swalloved it at all, did you!?" his outburst snapped One, as well most of the intoners, who raised their sights towards the wheelbarrow when the outburst was heard"I mean look at your face, it says" Im sorry Im sorry". . . you even look like you are about to cry, hahaha-haha! It so funny, I couldn´t resist!" The reveal confused One for a moment, but after finally realizing what he had done, She felt like an idiot. After all, how could a human realize that they were. . .?

"You, insolent rat, I gave you the benefit of the doubt and you-"

"One, the dinner is ready!" The voice of Two reached both captor and captive, shocking the anger of the former, and letting her smell the delicious aroma of cooked meat with vegetables.

 ***GROOOLLLWWWW***

The captive also smelled the delicious aroma, and so had his stomach growled in demand of that food.

"Oh, nice! That smells delicious, I could take a little meal before . . uh oh. . ." He soon felt chilled when he realized the shadow of smirk drawing on One´s face.

The young man´s face was now one of worry.

"Not so of a jester now?" Her voice had returned to her previous cold and neutral form, but now a slighly feel of smug was in face.

"Well. . . .mmmhh. . I used to act in taverns, hehehe~. . . Ta-da. I´m a real, successful jester, you know!?" But one´s evil smirk stood there, seeing the helpless young man. She took off from the seat´s driver and started to walk towards her sisters, who where serving the meal, seated around the cauldron. But before getting further, she turned towards the wheelbarrow.

"Do not worry, mister, as we will resume this interrogation. . .after **we** eat~" She made a clear emphasis on the last **"We",** at the same time she signalized herself with her own hand.

"Y-yeah. . .that´s good, you know. . . people must have full belly these days to work . . . hey, by _**we**_ you mean you and your sisters or you and me and your sisters?" Then One, with a devious smile she answered:

"Yes" And then she speed up her pace towards the cauldron.

"Yes. . . Yes what?, hey girl! Yes What? Yes is only a numeric . . ." But one paid no attention to his words.

After sitting down on the ground in circle among her sisters, Little One was handed a plate of wood, containing a soup made of meat and vegetables.

Despite the ramblings of the captured man, the atmosfere was cheery.

"This is a nice cook. Who did it this time?" One asked .

"I did!" Two raised her arm" Althought I had help from Four and Three. ."

"Wonderful done you three" and then she patted Two´s head, and an assuring smile to the others.

"Ok!, Ok! I´m sorry! I´m sorry! I just wanted to tease you a little bit!, Don´t take it personal, but seeing a kid so serious these days . . ." This yelling finally brought up the subject of the prisoner at hand of the five sisters"I felt the urge to tease you!"

"Soosh, Onach. . Ish she a wandit or nkot ? Said Five, her mouth full of food.

"I´m not so sure. He didn´t want to cooperate, so I couldn´t confirm it" She lied. Of course he was not bandit, his attempt to not reveal the location of the nearby village where he had got drunk hadn´t been ignored by One. No, she just wanted to punish him a little for making her felt like an idiot. But her sisters didn´t needed to know that part, and besides, she was really going to let him fed after they eat. She wasn´t that mean

But still, even as a no-nonsense person, One had a lightly petty side as any normal girl at her age.

"I don´t know. . . leaving someone like this. . ."Two was feeling bad for the cries of the young man, but she wouldn´t contradict her older sister. Meanwhile, Four was attemping to make Sure Three was not playing with her hair by sumerging it in the soup.

Unfortunely, it was too late.

"Look four . . my hair smells like food now. . . I can draw with my hair" Three was "painting" Fous´s clothes with the her stained hair.

"No Three! You mustn´t play with your food-AAAGHH! GET AWAY YOUR DIRTY HAIR FROM MINE´S!" Four was struggling with Three in an attempt to fend off Three´s stained hair in soup. Five just laughted at that sight "Don´t laught off, help me!"

"Ughhhhh. . . Help!. . .Please!. . . I´m dying!. . . my stomach!. . . is eating itself!. . .and now is disgesting my intestines!. . . soon it will eat me!. . . OH MY-" One did her best to not hear the fake-exagarated voice of the captive young man. However, two. . .

"E-excuse me One, b-but, can we let him eat, please!?he is suffering so much. . " Two requested, at mercy of the captive. One could only sigh and give the ok.

" . . fine. . . anyways, if he keeps yelling, he would end up bringing some bandit attention to us. Two, go and release him"

* * *

"Hey, don´t you think they are exagerating?" Said Two, a while ago being cheery, now only watching the scene with concern.

"Definitively. Anyways, this is gross. . ." Answered Four, as she and the rest of the sisters were staring how Five and the young man were eating fast, gulping the food without almost chewing it, only to proceeded to the next chop. the barbaric way they were swallowing the food reminded her of pigs, henceforth her cringe.

After being released and invited(under the death-threat of not doing anything funny with her sisters by One ) The young man started to eat without restrain the soup made of cabbage, potatoes and meat with relish and speed, weirding out most of the sisters except for Three and Five. The last one, as good eater as she was, saw in the young man a rival.

As result, without even the verbal mention of the challengue, both Five and the young stranger started to compete, to see who was able to eat the most food, and not puke. At the beginning, Two had started to cheer for her sister.

" _Yeah, go Five, show him the stomach of an intoner!_ " One had got alarmed at the claim Two had just made. She knew well that their former captive, now guest was far smarter that he looked. And most probably had heard Two´s statement about being an intoner.

" _Please, don´t eat too much, or you could end up puking everything_ " Four had warned, seeing how dangerously the food race was going. And now, after a tense 10 minutes of continuous choping, gulping and repeating, Five finally gave up by puking everything

" **UMHAAWWWWW!"**

. . . over Three´s persona, and fell to the ground, semi-unconstious, and groaning of pain, drooling saliva combined with a yellow sustance from her mouth. The act had three took by surprise , whose eyes whose eyes widened in surprise. Then she proceeded to touch the substance that was staining her clothes and drenching her hair.

". . . .Yuck. . ." Even Three knew well that this was beyond she tolerated.

"EEWWHH, GrossGrossGrossGrossGROSS!" Four shriek of disgust. She put her hands covering the mouth, trying to not left the contents of her own stomach exit too. One could only facepalm at the stupid scene: Five had just puke and passed out, Three was touching her dress, covered by the puke, and Four bitching around with her motormouth, talking about Five´s uncontrollable apetite and chest. Only two was there, staring a little bit worried at her sisters, with a nervous smile drawn in her face. One mentally sighted.

 _´ ***Sigh***. . .sometimes I wonder if we are sisters after all´_ Then she proceeded to order Two to take three behind the wheelbarrow and change her clothes. At her orders, Two complied with a nod, carefully taking Three´s hands and moving towards the wheelbarrow.

"Four, how is Five doing?" The double-pony haired girl then kneeled next to Five. After begrudgingly checking her, as well mentally praising how Five deserved that, she gave her diagnostic.

"She is fine, apparently she is only suffering of the belly, and also she stained a part of her clothes " Said, after frowning at the her sister, some liquid still escaping from her mouth "I think I´m going to look if there is any river or pond around in order to bring her some water, are you ok with that?" Four said, poiting to nodded in confirmation. Then Four moved towards the wheelbarrow in order to pick a cube.

Finally, both One and the stranger were alone(Five was out of cold). Since the moment the blon had puked, the stranger had left his plate of meal and stayed in silence, seeing how the little girls were organizing themselves to deal with the after of the disgusting occurance. One was glaring him attentively, while the young man was actually seeing her with a relaxed expression.

"Thanks for the meal. . . and sorry for what happen recently" The young man understood that was not wise to mess with her.

"You didn´t did anything"

"Yes, that is what I did: I could have told her I had no desire to compete agaist her, but I was curious to see if she would really do it. .you know, make a race with me" He signaled at Five´s unconstious body"I know no word was said, but I silently took her challengue when I increased the pace"

"There is no need to ask for forgiveness. Five has this bad tendency to eat in excess in the meals, even when she isn´t hungry. She deserved that" One responded, her glare slowly softing. But still she was not trusting the stranger" I guess at this point you own me. . Sorry, you own **us** an explanation"

"Right. . . but I think it would be better to wait for the rest of your sister to return, so I don´t have to repeat myself" The young man **hate it** when he had to repeat a whole history just when he had just finished.

"Sounds reasonable" Then both of them stayed in silence.

Eventually, Two returned with Three, excusing herself for the wait. Shortly after, Four appeared, with a cube of water. Carefully she started to vert with her hands some water on Five´s face. This helped Five to wake up, althought the belly-ache was still present.

The five sisters were reunited, and One made the motion to the stranger to present himself.

"Mhh! Mhh!, I appreciate your hospitally, little ones. The food was delicious, so I would like to extend my appreciations to the cook personality before presenting myself" all five sisters inmediatly stared at Two, who started to get a little flushtered and started to scrach her nape, avoiding crossing eyes with the man.

"A-ah, it was nothing!, One cooks even better than me-"

"Non-sense, little lady. You cook, in the mouth of the starving is not less than a blessing. Thank you" and with a faint, but lovely smile,Two felt how her chest was feeling hot out of suddent.

"Tch, this guy is a pro. Not even went for the physical yet and already has Two over her kneels" Four gritted between teeths. Four had heard her and shot a frowned glare to her sister

 _´the hell are you talking about´_ Four deadpanned

"Now that this little affair was settled. . . my name is Ibrahim, I´m an bard and minstrel of the masses, Wanderer of the World" The last title, "Wanderer of the World" Brought attention to Three, for some reason" Now young ladies, who you might be?" At this mention, One made a sign with her hands, a sign that everyone understood. Inmediatly, one by one the sisters moved next to each other, forming a line in front of Ibrahim.

"I´m Five~"

"My name is Four "

"Three. . ."

"Hi, I´m Two"

"And I am One " Then, the five girls got closer each other, and establising posicions. . "Togueter, we are. . .

 **"Intoners!"**

And they ended in a group pose, Two and four each next to One, Five was slighly below One, and Three was sitted bellow, on the ground. Since the stranger already knew, she considered that there was no problem to let him know that they were called "Intoners", as long he doesn´t discover what meant to be one.

Such presentation was not absence of claps.

* **Clap**Clap* *Clap*** "Magnificent, just magnificent. I never heard of such group of artists, much less of five little girls as artists!" He exclaimed, surprised and almost convinced that the five sisters were, in fact from the same line of work like him.

". . Umh. . We are not artists. . ." Excused Four, while Two decided to give him an explanation.

"Yeah mister, we are the Intoner Five! We have the mission of saving the world by using the power of So-" But It was at that moment that One covered her mouth"MhhhhP! MHP!" She was just about to reveal critical information about themselves to a bard, and such thing One couldn´t allow it

"Saving the world throught the power of. . of song?"

"It´s not what you believe, mister. We-" But Ibrahim didn´t allowed One to continue with her excuse. Instead, he had found his own explanation.

"Oh. . I see, I see! So you girls are a choir of singers, right?" That response took aback almost all the intoners, with the exception of Three, who was only following everything that was happening without any comment or shift in facial expression.

"W-what?" One got confused for a second. Was this man really misunderstanding this?

" I mean that you are a group of singers, isn´t by that "power of song" meaning you have the power to hypnotize the masses with your voices shaped by the melody?" At that moment of doubt by the stranger, One decided to take a shot.

"Y-yes, we are also wanderers like you, earning money and praise from the people by singing the most beautiful of songs" Retorted One, relief for a second. Revealing their true powers to the people had only brought dificulties until now. "Isn´t thar right, sisters?" One then made a wink towards her sisters, hoping at least one of them had catched the message. And one of them did.

"Y-yeah, I mean. . Our songs have enchanted the ears and stealed the hearts of many people. Althought we are new in this land, and thus we were looking for next noble fortress to provide our song." Four had managed to said after realizing what her sister wanted to do.

"I see. . " The rest of the sisters outside Four and One we´re not too sure what was going on. Luckly, Five, as dizzy as always decided to take a step to the front, in order to take benefit of the situation. After all, she liked the man. . .

"Look me at me, Mister. I´m the main dancer of the Intoner´s Five. . . Both my body and my voice have captive the eyes and ears of many men and women during our travels. . .my charm, as you can see is legendary" Then Five started to to shake her body in her dance, making Ibrahim to wide his eyes in critic examination.

"Well, you don´t look exactly like a toddler with a shape like that ,but. . ." One couldn´t believed, Five´s hedonious act was actually distracting him!. Five just gave her the short time she needed to discuss with her two most reliable sisters without raising suspects from Samael. dragging both Four and Two, one moved towards the wheelbarrow.

"One, what are you doing?" Four asked in whisper, biting her nails. She didn´t liked the fact that she had just told a lie at the implicit request of her older sister.

"Protecting our identities: a bard goes from village to village passing rumors, stories. . . even information. If we let him discover our real powers or intentions, there is no guarantee he won´t tell about us in every village he goes, thus exposing us to the agents of the lords before reaching the land of sands" The explanation inmediatly sinked in Four´s mind, gasping in realization _´How stupid I could be, of course One had a reason to lie´_ She though, praising her older sister mentally.

"Ah, so we are trying to pass without raising suspicious, One?" Two asked.

"Yes, at least, until we have removed the lord of the land of the sand, we must proceed without raising attention. Also, I have a plan" And then, while trio started to discuss One´s ideas, Ibrahim, who was still distracted with Five, who had dragged a short while ago Three in order to extend her act, started to feel a Little. . . uncomfortable.

"And this, this is our little dance of glamour~" Five was dancing with a static Three, holding her body and pressing her chest against Three´s head, making her boobs to be squished agaist the Three´s hair. During all the time, Three remained static, a frown was formed in her face, indicating she didn´t wanted to do this.

"Five. . .please. . . let me go. . . I don´t wanna. . " Three pouted childishly, she felt tired and only wanted to sleep. Ibrahim could only sweat and give his best nervious smile

" W-well, well, despite you age, you surely show how to move to cautive men . . . seriously, now please stop" Ibrahim wasn´t a strait-laced man. He enjoyed the company of women like any other man, but Five was a just too young to even be a targed practice.

"Oh? Are I´m too much for you~?" Five just enjoyed seducing people, and seeing their faces flush embarrased was even more amusing. In fact, the idea of she and her sisters being a group of singers and dancers actually travelling throught the world actually sounded good: What way to make men surround to her feet, getting rich and famous was better than this?

Five!" A voice had rose, emanating her autority over the youngest of the sisters. One was shoting a correcting glare"Please, do not start seducting another man" This had happened before, and she didn´t want to deal with this again.

". . . Fine. . " Five frowned, letting go her grip from Three´s hands. The letargic Intoner fell to her knees, then rest her body on the ground. One then directed her next words towards Ibrahim

"Well, Ibrahim"Wanderer of the World"" One mentionated his title, believing that could help to ease him to be convinced"Now that we know each other, I may ask you, do you may know the location of the fortress of the Lord of the sands?" At that mention, Ibrahim twitched slighly at the mention of that place.

that terrib _le, hor_ rible h _ell that no man, or child should ever get close to´_

"Uhh, sure thing girls, you mean the fortress of Lord Bass, right?" One nodded in afirmation "but why? if is your desire to go there for a show, then sorry to dissapoint you, but Bass already has his own group of Jesters and musicians in his castle, and no matter how good you are with your singing or dance, I doubt he may even let you in" He stated, attemping to not offend the girls but also to convince them of just not going to the Lord´s castle.

It was just a really, _really bad_ idea.

"Even so, we want to try. We have the responsability of carrying our voices throught the song to those of deaf ears, so they may know something better"

 _´This girl One does has a way with her words. . .´_ Ibrahim started to finally recognize that One wasn´t just a simple, common girl. He had his doubt at first, but perhaps these five Little girls, who claimed to be sisters despite the obvious diferences between them, were daughters from a noble family of some unknown house.

For the other hand, One was beating herself over the big lie she just had said: Of course they wanted to reach Lord Bass´s residence, so they could kill him!. Lord Bass was suspected of kidnapping children across his land for unknown reasons. Whaever happened to the poor children once inside the fortress was a mystery, except for the fact that no one ever saw them again.

 _A_ fter a long internal struggle, the Ibrahim finally decided what he would do.

"All right, little ladies, you win. I shall tell you where the Lord of the Land of Sand lives. . . If you let me go with you" One was going to protest against that. But then Two had to jump on.

"Oh! You mean you wanna travel with us mister!?" Two lovely smile only grew larger when Ibrahim responded with a assuring nod "That sounds so great!isn´t that right, girls? We can have an adult when we need it!" Two exclamation had woke up Three from her slumber, the lethargic intoner started to scrub her eyes. Certainly, there were times when Two thought that some of her problems would resolved far easier if they had a adult figure around them, and besides _´Hearing stories from bard would be fun!´_. Unfortunely, the way she had said her last sentence caught the attention of Five, smilling deviously.

"Mhh. . . when we "need" it, Two~?" Five had just detected an innuendo, and she wasn´t going to let it go" I thought I was the only one interest in sex, but you just had to prove me wrong~"The words of the blonde intoner took a momento to sink. . . then Two´s face changed from a lively smile to a grimmace of embarrassment, becoming red as a tomato.

"W-WHAT!? No! . . I-I didn´t mean like that! Shup up!, five you perv. . !" Two pouted over her younger sister, she had never understood her younger´s sister fashination with the opposite sex. But then, One´s slicing voice made itself be heard by the rest of her sisters.

"No!" One had a expression so stern in her face right now that all her sisters became quiet, seeing her older sister with a glint of fear"You won´t be coming with us. Just tell us which paths to take and we will handle ourselves" Her voice was cold and harsh this time. But the young bard wasn´t someone to be intimidated by words.

"Yes, I will go with you, otherwise, I won´t tell you which paths are the most safe and shorter to reach Lord´s Bass fortress"

"No, if we let you come with us, what can assure us you won´t steal our future client, the Lord of the sands?" One was attemping to find an excuse to make the stranger to just tell where the land lord was without letting him come.´ _I won´t let any person to bear our weight . This is the destiny of us, intoners, not normal humans´_

" I won´t. . .unless you allow me. If the later were the case, then we can always divide the bounty, like. . . one to five coins. I´m not too greedy" One refused to accept the offer: She just wanted to know where the land lord of the sands was and then say goodbye to Samael. For a moment, she considered the posibility of using the song to force Samael to reveal the location, but doing so would mean reveal their powers to him, to a bard. After that they couldn´t just left him. In order to preserve their concealment, she would have to k-

No, she wouldn´t do that, she wouldn´t _**never do that.**_ The killing of an innocent man for her cause was still a line she wasn´t ready cross. After an intense staring between the Ibrahim and One, she finally backed in her request, but only to come with another one.

"All right, you can come with us, with three conditions. . . " She stated by raising her three central fingers of her left hand. At the mention of "three", the Intoner with the namesake took a step foward and faced One.

"Ok One. . . I let me think. . . what he can do for us-"

"No, I m saying three things as the number of conditions, not you sister . . . * **Sigh***. . ." Then she turned to the bard again and raised one finger" One: You will be walking ahead during the travel" Then another one"Two, you will not do any of your acts as a bard or minstrel in the villages we cross, and also expect none from us. This is important, as we want to present ourselves into the lord Bass´s fortress as a surprise" The less people know about them, the better.

"Ok, I understand the necesity of secrecy" Ibrahim felt somewhat bitter for this last request, he enjoyed to make his acts as bard or lend his services as a minstrel, and the prohibitation of these is was like telling him to not sleep nor eat: A torture. Nevertheless, he was willing to accept. Then One raised a third finger.

"Good, and the last condition: At the moment we see the lord´s castle, our association will be over: You will have to leave us by marching in an opposite path for at least one day. No discusion" This last condition was meant to prevent him from following the Intoners. She put her petite arms crossed, and her stare locked on Ibrahim´s face, waiting for the response.

The bard wanted to protest against such condition, but decided to not do it, understanding throught One´s Little red orbs she had as eyes, that this was for real an unquestionable condition.

"I. . .I agree with all your conditions young lady. I will conduct you and your sisters throught the safest of the paths possible to the castle of the Lord of the Sands, Lord Bass" Then, he walks towards One, bents down in front of her by kneeling one leg, and puts the palm of his right hand over where his heart would be"As man of humble, but honest honor, who has witnessed many miracles and miseries, I shall take oath to this agreedment made by the contractor" And then, he waited, as if expecting something to happening.

"What are you doing?" One had no clue of what kind of gesture he was doing, of if she actually had to participate in it. The man, without moving his head, replied.

"I´m just making an"Oath": When person wants to make a promise about something to another person, this stance shall be taken, and the other person shall close their hand, so the one kneeling can kiss it, sealing the agreement between the parts. I´m making an Oath with you, One, because I want to be trusted by you and your sisters. and I have never broken an oath before"

At that statement, Both Two and Four flushed a little bit, Five stared at One with a smug smile, and Three wondered herself why the troubled reaction of her sisters. One stood there, staring for a while at Samael with mixed feelings, but without showing any emotion. Finally, she sighed and gave her hand to him. Then, raising his head, she took the hand and kiss it.

The warm feeling of foreing lips touching her milky skin that was over her hand sended a small, but noticiable sense of joy and pleasure in her brain, like this was something she always yearned for _´Strange´_ One did her part to not let these feelings to take over. Fortunely for her, the kiss only lasted one second. After oath, a smiling Ibrahim stood, ready for anything.

"Ohhh. . ." Two muttered, almost catching her breath. Four was blusing even more than before.

"Mhp! Mhp! Mhp!. . . so this is an oath, huh? I will this remenber for a next time, One. Enjoy it~" Five mocked her older sister, and One had Heard but she was still a bit shocked to even make a response.

"Well, now you are the boss, Little miss. What do I do now?" He asked with slight anxiousness. One was still somewhat distracted by that feeling of recently, but inmediatly she shove it off.

"R-right, for now we will rest here. Night is almost over us, tomorrow we will continue" And so, the five Intoners plus Ibrahim started to prepare themselves for the night. Tomorrow, a new experience would start for all of them.

* * *

 **I felt temptated to do a Drakengard fanfic since a while now, so all I can say is . . . finally!**

 **On a second note, during the brainstorm for this fanfic I took interest in doing a character that could had at least some general or minimal knowledge of the world inside drakengard. It was then when I remenbered that the world of Drakengard was an alternative world of the early middle ages! that brought me to the character of the bard and minstrel and their role during the dark ages of humanity as wandering artists, doing roles of poets, historians and even musicians. Being that said, I made this OC, Ibrahim while thinking on a typical bard of the drakengard world, you know, the same world who looks kinda like the middle ages except for the fact that it has less goverment entities, magic, creatures that hate mankind, dragons that can make "pee-pee" and "poo-poo"(Mihkail), more mean people, and gods who hates you because you exist.**

 **So. . . yeah, you can figure out what kind of person is my OC by taking in consideration that he calls himself "The wanderer of the World" in a world like this.**

 **As for the plot, yes, the plot is going to follow the one of the Manga of Utahime five with more diferences and more details, and I have a surprise (almost) planned at the end. But do not worry, the fic itself will continue after passing that manga.**

 **Have you realized that the map of midgard is just Europe but inverted? I felt like an idiot by realizing that yesterday!**

 **/ Update from 1/27/18. Gosh sometimes I can find dumb gramatical mistakes, even when I´m sure I did it right. corrected**

 **Arrivederchi!, hope you have enjoy it.**


	2. Trust I

**I do not own the content or credit of the Drakengard franchise. Drakengard 3 belongs only to Yoko Taro, his production team and Square Enix. So the same I say about the real Book of Enoch, which is an ancient religious book, from which I´m just taking some inspiration.**

* * *

 _The time is around morning,_ but _these days have been all the same, with sky grey and snow falling from it, is hard to deduct if I´m around the first light or is dusk._

 _I stare at the cup I had bought since I left the last village, is funny: even thought we are miles away from the capital, the people around this distand land knows the face of their ruler._

 _ **´Sniff, Sniff´** The food will be ready soon. The delicious smell is appearing already, but I need to wait five minutes more._

 _I stand from the eccentric but comfortable chair, which may or may not been left here by some foreing traveller, and take look around the wood hutt I´m inside now, a heaven for travellers and wanderers in this region. But this rest spot wasn´t constructed here randomly and then abandoned, heavens no!._

 _The previous ruler of this land realized that too many people died due to the natural perils of the snowy region, a region which had never experienced none other season but winter. After a little investigation, they deduced that most of the victims were travellers or people who got lost in the woods, and died because of two main factors: Inanination and frostbite._

 _The solution? Build huts around the region randomly, so a lost wanderer can find and take refugee. And the food solution? For those who don´t have anything to eat with, they left here a bow with some arrows around, just so you can earn your own meal. And there is even a more amazing feature._

 _Moving around my sight, I see bell hanging from a hanger on the chimney, with some words carved in the bricks with instruccions regarding this object, in the language of this land._

" _**I went, I found, I lost. Make the bell ring three times, and ask for guideness. A grumpy leshy will come for you"**_

 _Now, the word Leshy comes from the folclore around these parts: they are described as the protectors of the forest and their animals. The hunters respect and revere him. The descripcions vary, but most of the time it presents to the humans as old, big men with horns, sometimes surrounded of wolves and bear, and wearing fur clothes upside down. ._

 _And this is what exactly happens after you do exactly what the instruccions told you: Those who returned to the villages after being considered lost reported that they were, in fact, guided by an old man who didn´t stopped of complaining about the winter and the snow._

 _One would think that, in fact, these old people are really Leshys, but there is something that doesn´t match: Leshy tend to sleep during the winter, as they dislike the cold._

 _What can I think of this?Does this mean that somehow, the empire managed to obtain collaboration from the Leshy? Or they were enslaved?, how. . How did they made it?_

 _I once asked a peasant about this, a old chief from a village who had the amiability of receive me warmly. And he told me this:_

 _ **´ This is a pact between our king and the subjects. An stranger wouldn´t never understand´**_

 _This shall be another history that I will remenber. A mystery whose truth shall be reserved to their owners._

 _Now I lock my eyes in what is across the windows and see: the forest, the snow, the grey sky, the snowflakes, the fog of my breath revealing itself over the window, my own eyes still expecting the future. . . and a little far beyond that, the montains._

 _These montains are where this empire extends. And far beyond that is no-man´s land. . ._

* * *

S _omewhere in the paths of a big valley, land of the montains, crossing border to the land of the sands. April 998._

"Or so I thought once" I mutter to my insides as I sit in a nearby rock to our camp. The first light is already over us, but I have been awoken long before that" It´s has been a long time, for sure. . ."

Oh, my manners, by "We" I´m talking about me, the half-sleep, half-glaring red eyed girl that is still keeping an eye on me, and her others four sisters, sleeping as rocks with mouths and lungs, as if their snores weren´t strong enough, over some blankets on the ground close to the cauldron. I instead slept with my back on a tree nearby.

As for the girl almost dead asleep, One, she is now leaning on a tree close to is an explanation for this, or as she had put it yesterday:

 _´I will not let you take the nightwatch. Even you have swore yourself to us, you still yet has to prove me you are reliable´_

Short story: I offered for being the first in doing the first nightwatch, but One refused and decided that she would take not one, but all of the nightwatch hours, bragging that she has a good hearing and could call alarm everyone in case she heard something. Needless to say, is obvious she did that to maintain a certain control on me.

 _´A elder sister giving everything to safeguard their flesh and blood-´_

I inmediatly shrugg off what was going on my mind for a second, as I decend from my rock and start to walk towards One, who is almost at the border of collapsing in a deep slumber, leaned on a tree backwards.

"Good morning" I salute to her, to her annoyence

"You already said that. . . why "* _ **Yawn**_ * you greet me again?" She manages to formulate, but her sleepy look and voice betrays her attempt of autority

"Just so you can stay awake~"I say playfully grinning, but she doesn´t return the smile, still in her sleeping-neutral face, Wow, you cannot be this serious girl. Is too damn early for this "Anyway, the sooner we depart, the earliest we will arrive at Lord Bass´s castle. Wouldn´t you agree?" after all, she is still being in charge"I believe it would be for the best to wake up your sisters now, take a quick breakfast now on during the way and keep going" I do my best to sound as humble as possible, so I don´t sound bossy. Months and months of travelling with diferent people, my friends!

"I guess you are right. . . then. ." And so, she starts moving clumsily towards her sisters in order to wake them up, but them she stumbles, almost falling to the ground if it wasn´t because I was behind her ready to catch her"Ughh. . .why you"

"Now, now, I don´t want my new boss to get a concussion this early"The only thanks I receive from her are a shrugg off from my arms. Still. . ."I will awake them for you, just, hang in there, ok?" Not waiting for a nod or something, I move towards the four sleepings girls, some of them are embracing one each other, but almost all of them(Except for the violet haired one) is snoring. They look soo peaceful and adorable like this.. .

Today I feel like the devil.

"Forgive me. . ." I decide to bend over and put my hands between my mouth, so I can amplify my shout.

"Wait Ibrahim, what are you gon-"I heard One close to me, but I´m already yelling

" **WAAAAAAAAKEEEEE UUUUP YOOOUUU LAZ-!"**

* * *

"Ouch. . . it´s still hurts. . ." My right hand is caressing my nape, a little hurt due a slap a receive earlier.

"Well mister, you kind of deserved that for screaming"Says the brown haired girl known as Four, she is waking in the front with me. While Three, Four, and Two are pushing the wheelbarrow, with One sleeping inside after being convinced by her sisters that she really needed a rest.

"I thought she was bragging when she said that she had very good hearing. Alas, I didn´t known she was that sensible!" Short story: Because of my yelling, I ended up recroning One´s ears by accident, then she got angry at me and had to silence me with a good slapping at the back of my head.

What a nice way to start a morning.

"One can be a little. . grumpy sometimes, but don´t worry about that, she is not the kind of holding grudges at anyone for a serious reason, if you are concerned about that" I smile and nod at the, and then I return my eyes on the road.

Time passes. Sometimes the girls decide to stop, taking shift over who should go in the front. Normally, at this point, I would be chatting with one of my travelling partners. . .if this were a normal caravenee, that is. Thing is, is that I´m not used to be silent during a journey, if there was someone capable of talking, then I would just chat for a while.

These girls don´t seem eager to talk, at least I heard them mumble some words between them there at the back of the wheelbarrow. Can´t say the same for the one who always goes at the front, who is almost always looking straight to the road, sometimes shifting her sight towards anything else next to us.

Except for that girl with the purple hair, Three. She is. . . diferent, to say if someone is just staring at you for just five minutes straight. Then doing the same to anything for five minutes again, and then saying something completely out of context.

It´s obvious to say they don´t feel confident enough to talk to me, at least not with her sister here awoken. Maybe they are used to leave her sister to deal with the strangers?

Well, aside from speculations, let´s focus in something more important Ibrahim:

Lord Bass isn´t that far from here, he lives close to the land of the forest, where the territory is more green and the heat doesn`t opress you. Being that said, the real problem would be picking the most short route. But crossing the desert, in wheelbarrow? With nothing but five little girls and me, a bard? Is suicide. Our goal then, is to reach the land of the forests, and take the road closest to the land of the Sand, and from there we can reach Lord Bass´s castle.

Since we need to cross to the Land of the Forest, is a must to past throught that last village I had been earlier, then march towards the frontier at north. I have already filled One that we have to go towards the village again, but I promised that I will enter in details once I have dealt with a issue.

Now the one at my side is Four again and-

"Sooo. . . Mister, could I ask you a question~!?" I heard a sultry voice say, It´s probably that blond, Five, who is pushing the wheelbarrow along with Three and Four. It just took a sight at her for me. . .and I can already see she is a troublemaker. .

Figures. . I just wave a hand without look at her

"You already did that, little girl" I tease her a little telling her little girl, despise the. . Physical evidence saying otherwise.

"Ohh come on, I just want to ask you someting~" Well, as a bard, I have my obligations of answering quarries, don´t I?

"Of course, little miss"

" I hope is nothing pervert, Five!" Four warned her with grimmace response, but noneless the busty intoner didn´t seem to be intimidated. Two and Three were expectant about the what was going to happen, albeit I could only confirm that Two showed visible concern. I decide to turn towards the back of the wooden vehicule. . . to see a big wry grinn in the blonde´s face. Then momentanealy, her smile now disappears, only to be replaced with a serious expression.

"No, far from it, my dear sister. . I think this is a serious question!" Odd, she feels so out of chracter without her sultry tone of voice. The sisters are also surprised by this development. Four then relaxes a bit, but then with an even bigger grin, Five shoots her question"Do you have sexual experience?" Aaand this justifies my statament about her earlier. The wheelbarrow stops out suddently, and I hear the sound of something hitting wood.

 _ ***tuck***_

" _ **Augh!"**_ Then the yelp of a girl. Looks like someone didn´t payed attention to the wheelbarrow stopping.

"Oh! three!" Two leans towards the ground to help Three, who is sitted in the ground, caressing her head. Five just laughts at what happened. But someone here is angry.

"Y-you. . Shameless, pervert. . . . ! Why do you ask such questions!?" Four is angry at her, her cheeks a little red.

"Why is pervert? I´m just asking if he has experience. There is nothing to be ashemed for that"

"B-b-but still, a-asking about pri-private matters . . to person we recently know,that is. . ." I don´t like to see some toddlers to stand for me. I make a sign to Four to stop.

"Nay, is ok. Actually, I don´t mind answering" I wink her from anger to one of shock"Now, to answer your question. . Yes, I think I do have some sexual experience. However, if you insist on any details, then I will inform you that that´s private, that this is not the time to discuss subjects like that. And if your older sister knew about this, she would probably get really, _really_ angry. Is that enough for you?"

"Ah, I see. . ." Then she talks no more, but keeps her grin reduced to a devious smirk. After Two attended the bruise Three had in her forehead, we resumed our journey.

As the sun keeps going going upwards, I let my thoughts go wander for while.

. . . These little girls wore and behave almost as if they were noble. . . _well, almost_ , but interestly enough, I don´t recall any house of importance having five daughters, or even the lords of these put it simply, the only clue I have is that golden insignia they have at their cloak, it could have engraved their family crest. Also. . . . they look so diferent!Chances are, that they might not be blood related, or at least have diferent mother or father, but one father or mother in particular. . .W-wait!

If they are from a noble family, and somehow I got them killed, then there is a chance someone is going to pursue me for my head _´yikes!´_

* * *

 _Village_ _, land of the montains, crossing border to the land of the sands. April 998._

After a two hours of walking, we finally reach the village. It´s name is. . .

"Wallstein! The town that has seen armies of diferent powers cross step through it´s soil!" I acclaim at the intoners, in the middle of the plaza of the town, at the center there is an statue. The town is not that big: around 31 buildings compose it, but at least it has an inn with a lot of rooms, a weaponsmith, and there is a mage who is selling some goods that we may need for our journey. There is also some sort of milicia here, who take the responsability of guards here, but they are not too good at it. I mean, when we entered to the village, they just glanced at us for a moment and then they let us pass.

One takes a step foward, with her usual serious face. Probably for something important.

"We already knew that, but you very much for remind us it´s name in case we forgot about it" She deadpanned and. . . wait, did they knew it already?

"Did you passed through here before?"

"Yes, around two days proceeding south before finding you" Oh. . . I see, well that´s explains why I didn´t met you earlier than before. . . Wait, if they were going to Lord´s Bass castle, then why going south?. . I will ask later. For now, we need to take advantage that we´re here.

"All right, Two, check our food supply, and go to the market and buy what we need" She said as she tossed a bag, which a sound of coins clashing each other"We will out for an undefined amount of time. Just don´t buy any kind of meat. It may get rotten in a day with this heat of these days" She bosses.

"Okey, You can count on me!" She says raising her hand in a palm closer to her forehead. . .what kind of salute is that?

"Five, you go at the weaponsmith, and try bargain for a bow for no less than 25 arrows. We are gonna use it for for hunt our own meals" Good thinking. And then she takes another bag of coins?"It must be a short bow, remember, a short- steel-forged bow, and the arrow must be of Iron tip. Can I count with you? "

"You got the correct girl for the job! On it, One~" And then she winks at her, a smug of confidence.

"Four, you stay with Three here, and make sure no one get´s a hand to our goods. If anyone * **ahem** * . . attemps to use violence on you, _sing_ "

"huh?"

"You may not believe it, Ibrahim, but know well that our songs are able to stun most people with their majestuosy" Then she turns to Four" I´m sure anyone assaulting you would flinch back" Oh. . Ohh. . I see. Well I got now more reasons to see you people sing.

"Oh. . .ok, sister. I will make sure no one steals from us" Four nods. Then One moves to Three, who is watching the statue, thus giving her back to the rest of her sisters.

"Three, behave yourself!" The violet-haired girl jumped, and lazily moved her head to face her sister"And don´t start asking people if they can give you a share of their hair!"

"Y-yes. . !" She said startled. Is good to see some piece of emotion behind those curtains of nothingness that were their eyes, even if those emotions were of fear.

"Good, I will go with Ibrahim to gather some info. All of you must return before the Sunset. If you don´t do it, then I will consider that you are in troubles, and I hope that´s happening, because if I find out you were wasting time, then **I will punish you**. Do all of you understand?" All of them nod, their faces contortioning in contained fear. I wonder if they have been punished before. . .

And so, we separate from the rest, moving into the streets.

"Are you sure they can handle their task?" I ask

"Two is reliable enough, especially with the food-matters, so does Four, she may not look it, but she is very observant and wary, good qualities for a watchman. . . . And Five may flirt with the weaponsmith for a while, but that should run at her favor for the bargain. Besides, she won´t put her desires over our mission. The only worry is Three, but she should be easy to handle with the warning I gave her earlier" she answers me with unremarkable reason"Moreover, you should prepare to give me a good explanation about our travel route"

"Yes, I will not disappoint" She really likes to patronize. Common to find in most noble girls. Well, at least she is not dumb.

* * *

The Inn isn´t that especial, except that it has two floors. As soon we enter inside I can see the true colours of this place: drunken men smilling and ranting, gamblers playing with nervious frowns, as if their lives depended of the game, and pricks are seatted around the tables, minding their own bussiness, some smoking, some others drinking at the bar. And there are these women alongside them, smilling stupidly alonside the men, letting them touch them whatever they want, wearing only the minimum to cover their breast, crotch and rear with some white of them have dark thin skin.

I can´t help but think every time I see these girls in my sisters and me, and how we could have ended up, having I not being around, or just having a terrible luck.

When we have defeated the lords of these lands, I will make sure prostibules and slavery disappear from the five lands!. But for now, I must keep a blind eye at these indecent acts for our own sake.

"Why are we in this despicable place?"

"I need to withdraw something before I can proceed to explain anything to you"

We seat in front of the counter, as Ibrahim has explain me shortly before enter. The owner of the Inn, a man called Gerald is a trusted acquiantance of him. Almost inmediatly, a man of fat build, black hair, and eyes like mouse appear, wearing a green tunic.

"Ohh, thank goodness I found you sane and well, Ibrahim, thank god!"

"What´s going on Gerald, you look pale. Did something happened while I was out?"

"Nothing of truly importance, it´s just. . . . " Then Gerald shifted her sight to me, scanning me and evaluating if I was able to understand what they were talking about or not. But that expression inmediatly changed by a condescent smile"Oh, who might be this cute lady of here?" I hope Ibrahim only limits to tell what we have told him only.

"Let me present you: Her name is En, she is the daughter of an old friend of mine I met yesterday while I was drunk on the paths of the village. She is actually in journey back to her home, in the land of the forests, but unfortunely, her horse was stolen along with most of her possesions at hand" Good, not only he avoided tell him about my sisters, but also he said a convenient lie to cover us.

I guess he knows well the true nature of this place, hencefore the obscure activities of his owner.

"Oh, I´m so sorry for you loss, miss. If there is any help I can provide, with much pleasure I will serve" He probably thinks I might be from nobility. Certainly, with my looks and Ibrahim elocuency, is not that hard to believe I´m the daughter of a duke or count. I choose to let the talk to Ibrahim, and instead I just smile to him, giving the impression that I appreciate his offer.

"Is your lucky day then, I´m going to accompany her, and before parting, I need you to return me my . . .insurance"

"Are you sure you want to say that word in front of her?" I do my best to put a stupid face of young girl confused by their talk, opening my eyes and tilting my head a little.

"She has like 10 years! Now pass me the key" Althought I´m young, I can assure I don´t have 10 years!, I´m older than that, I´m. . .,I´m. . . . actually, I can´t recall well. But I´m sure I´m the older one of my sisters.

Almost older. . But she abandoned us, so she doesn´t count!

"Here you go. I left it in this bottle in case a someeone came to rob me these days. Thank god I don´t have this weight any longer!" And so, he passes a gold looking key to Ibrahim, who proceedes to inmediatly hiding it between his clothes. With that done, Ibrahim still has something else to discuss.

"Any news I should know about?"

"Oh, yes, is about one of my workers, is the reason why I´m tense now" How dare to name with that words to these slaves!, if it wasn´t for the fact I needed to maintain our cover, I would make eat his words!"She disappeared last night, during the party, you know. . ."

"Oh. . so that´s what you call **"nothing of truly importance?"**. . . have you searched around the village, did you asked everyone involved in the party?"

"Yes, but even some of them claim they don´t remember. Most likely because of the alcohol effects. . . "

"I see. . . well, can you give me her descripcion? I can keep an eye for her during the rest of my routine in the village"

"Oh thank you!. . .well, her nane is Veronica, she is a young lady, younger than you I would say , has brown hair with a pony tail, and wore almost nothing except some robes covering her crotch and chest. Also, she is barefoot, I think. . ."

"I hope she hadn´t pass her night outside. The soil can be a harsh with the feet of a maiden" Now you are doing the same as those pigs, Ibrahim? Disappointing for my ears"Then, see you later, Gerald. I will pass by once more before sunset!" And so, we started to walk towards the door.

"Thanks Ibrahim, take care yourself!" Is what that fat man tell us before we exit the Inn. Sun is now a little angled from their highest posicion, which means we still have a good amount of time.

"You did well in no answering" He finally says"He could have make you talk for a good while, then attemp to invite you to-" He drawns an approving smile to me as he speaks to me. . But now I can drop the facade.

"How you can be friends with such lowlife!"I raise my a voice a little, as screaming would actually bring us unwanted attention. His smile inmediatly disappears, only to be reemplaced by a stern expression.

"He is not my friend, only a bussiness partner: I did a show in his Inn the night before you encountered me in the roadside. Of course, after my payment the day earlier, he asked for guarantee so I wouldn´t run away with the money, and I gave him this key" And he showed me the key he had received before: It was gold looking key, with ornaments I have never seen before. Still, this doesn´t disipate my disappoinment.

"How you could work with him? A sex slaver? Don´t you feel bad for these women!?" I glare him with fury, his relaxed expression starts to drop. Before saying something, he starts to look around us, and I do the same. . . I realice that some people are looking at us, probably for my outburst from recently. Damn.

"Didn´t you said you don´t want to attract attention, kid?" And for the first time, he glares at me with a serious stare. But is not like the adults that ditches us from other villages, nor the stare of a muggler that is about to attack you. No, this is the stare of someone who is seeing a person in the wrong, and believes it should be corrected _´Just like I do to my own sisters´ "_ Listen, let´s talk about this privately for a moment, shall we?"

After dragging me to a alley and standing near the street, he sighs at me. Putting his hands on his pockets, he leans on Wall and takes a momento to inspect me.

"We don´t have time for this. We need to-"

"Listen, One!. . . I was thinking of going for a Little conversation, but you are right, so I will speak out of my mind directly to you: Trust me. Trust me when I tell you that worse, much much worse fates exist than being just a worker in the Inn" He says, then he starts to look at the street, more precisely, at the people walking in it

"You think I don´t know about it? Of course there are worse fates! They could be chained, locked inside a dungeon, being raped, tortured. And they are still in that risk! They could be sold by that pig to slavers"

"You are right about the first, but wron about the second: Gerald would never do that"

"Eh?"

"Did you knew that about 18 families live here? the rest are either lone people or eldery couples, which are not a majority"

"N-no. . but what does that have to do with it?"

". . Some of those families were origined from the workers of that Inn. To put it simple, this village exist because of that Inn" What? that´s ridiculous, how can a Inn establish the foundations of a village?

"That´s unbelieveable!"

"It is? Think about this: Have you noticed the skin of those girls? Those women came running away from diferent parts of the land of the sand, looking for a way to survive, and stumble upon this Inn you are seeing here. Those who are wise enough to swallow their pride decide to live in the Inn, work as an dancer, waitress, or as you said, night work, and in return they get a shelter, food, and maybe, a place to call home. . . Beggars can´t be choosers, One . . .and Gerald. . . I won´t say Gerald is an innocent man, he always is at the wait of a young, naive girls ladies to temp them and hell, he once buyed two girls from slave traders, but at least he pays them, and he doesn´t restrict their freedom outside their workhours as long they don´t escape from the village. . . and where they would even go, anyways?. At the east is the desert, and the west are the mountains, a place which would be unforgiving to them and at south there is no village I know of, maybe the north they can go, but only a few of them have tried before. . . " Then he starts to walk more inside the alley, stops and gives a stare at his golden key" They choose to stay here and live like this because they feel safe. Gerald doesn´t slave them, they themselves . . "Slave" to the work. . "

This. . . I never thought of it before. . is true that some people are willing to not change anything, as long they feel secure with it, but. .

". .But how you can know that? did you asked them or something?"

"Yes I did!" I stare deep into his eyes, I put my ear to hear his respiration. . .is an honest answer, he really means it "Gerald had no problems with me talking with his. .workers during their free time or when they weren´t busy. Most of them are runaways, and they are fine with their situation"

"B-but. . why? why did you do it?"

"I´m a bard, remember? Listening and knowing the history of the people is one of my duties. And if I wasn´t using this knowledge to help, then It would be pointless for me to keep being a bard" He assures me. I still can´t believe this. ." Now, regarding we were talking about. . .From what I have been told by those girls, if they decided to settle here, moving on someone else house, or just leave, Gerald would allow it, as long they payed for any debts they had, that is. . and if you don´t believe me, you are free to go and ask one of those girls" I´m. . . I´m speechless. . . to think that. . . Pig, would allow to be this nice. . ."As you can see, One, reality is much more complex that could you believe. Not every dishonest man is a evil person, nor every hero is a saint. The world is not black and white. . . but gray, with some shades of it a little darker, and other shades a little lighter. . ." He finished. This gives me some thought. True, the truth cannot be simplified as a simple explanation, there but . .

"So what you mean is that is correct for them to live like that? Just staying there as sex objects?"

". . Mhh . . As long they agree with that, is fine I guess"

"You guess?"

" Is just how the world works One. For a woman, either you born in nobility, become a servant to said nobility, you get married to man who can support you, or just you sell your body" He stops momentanealy, his eyes inspecting me and wary"Or they could also become thieves and murderers, kill for anything they want . ." And his voice starts to ger further. . .my visión starts to distort. . . and I get to see something diferent. .

I´m in a room, a kitchen, and a person armed with a knife is advancing agaist shadowny figures who look human, killing them, eviscerating them, only for at the end grab apple suspended in the air and take a bit on it. But the person was hungry, the person was starving, was suffering. It had no choice, it had no choice, no one wanted to help. It was take or die, Take or die. It didn´t want to die. Want to-

I shook those thoughts, I don´t know what or who were those people. . . I will figure out later. Right now. . right now I-

"Hey. .Hey! are you hearing me?"

" * **sigh***. . yes, and I guess I went too narrow in my jugdement" his brows wide at my answer" My apologies for my unnecesary outburst, Ibrahim. ." I bow to him. Maybe he is right this time, but. . ."However, I still believe that selling their bodies is no good, as such practices are what foments the slavery practices" And this is the core of my disapproval.

"That is something I can agree with you" He. . He does, but didn´t he-"Anyways, look at me, you made me spend a good chuck of time talking you, and I haven´t even fill you with the details of our journey~" He started to walk towards the street, and turned his head towards me"Come, I guess you don´t want to waste more time. Wanna see the treasure chest I have been guarding all this time?" I inmediatly follow him up as soon he leaves the alley.

I can´t believe I just wasted minutes of our time in that talk. . . But at least. . at least I´m aware that he is not foolish person at he seemed at first.

* * *

After departuring from the plaza, I started to walk into the streets, finding the main market. I, Two, have been given the mission of re-suplying our food by next journey, so I shall take this matter serious!.

And I have the best equipment for delivery the food: my three loyal fowl baskets, two in my hands and one at my back, bigger than the others.

Let´s see. . . we´re gonna need carrots, some onions, tomatos too, but not too much. Ah! I remember Four asked me if I could find some green leunence for her. Leunence is special type of herb that, according to Four, it´s good for health, as helps to reguliraze our weight, as well it says it gives you smother skin!. I remember one time One approved of these, saying that it was always good to have some of these, soo, this also in the list.

While inspectioning the goods, my eyes catch on some type of fruit I have never seen before.

"Excuse me, lady!" The old lady then faces me "What are these?"

"These are some fruit brough by merchants from the land of the forest, they say it comes from the other side of the world, but as long it tastes good, we don´t actually really care"

"Can I taste one?"

"As long you paid for that one. . . 35 bronze coins" I think is a little expensive that the other fruits here, but I can afford it

"Okay!" I give her the coins in had. Now that I see it more closer, it looks like an apple, with a leaf popping out of its root, also it has a bit of yellow in his color. . . ahh it smells so good!. Let´s give it a bite~

 _ ***chomp***_

"MHHHHH IS SO TASTY!" Althought it looks like an apple, it has a diferent, but delicious flavor! Is sweet, so juicy! I never taste something like this before. .

I will buy some for my sisters to taste, they will love it! "Please could you give me four more-No, actually, give me five more of these!" I almost forgot about the new guy. .

"Ok, that would be one silver coin!" Ehhhh!? But I only have three of these, and One said I shouldn´t spend them in common things. But these fruits, their taste, their smell are better than anything. .

"But I thought 200 bronze coins equaled 1 silver"

"Not on this village, dear! Now, pay up, or keep moving" I guess they cannot be considered any common thing. Ok, One will understand once she tastes one of these. Knowing her, she will go crazy for this!

"Ok, ok. . There you go. ."

I finally ended with the buying. Now I´m walking towards the plaza again. I hope Four hadn´t got too much trouble handling Three, she can be crafty sometimes. . .

"Hey hey miss!" Oh, kid is calling for me, and he is, along with some friends, walking next to me.

"Yeah!Yeah! Who are you, why the funny clothes~?"

"And why so much food~!?"

"You must be moar strong than my dad to carry so much!" Ah, so many questions, and so little time. I think my sister said the less the people know about us, the better. But these are only children, so I guess it won´t hurt tell them a little about me.

Right?

"Oh, me and my sisters are travelling towards the north, towards our home"I made up. The kids open their mouths in awe. Oh. . They look adorable! " Hey, would you like a fruit!? I could spare some apples I think, I buyed like twenty"Just let me. . Put this in the ground and-"

"NOW!"

"OH!" one of them just took some of the fruits from the basked of my back! How. . ! AND NOW THEY ARE RUNNING AWAY. THEY TOOK A GOOD BUNCH OF POTATOES AND CARROTS TOO!. I inmediatly put the basket in my back, and start to carry the other two in my hands "H-hey! Come back! Is not good to rob other people!. ." At least I can run, but not so quick as I would like! . . .

At some point of my chase, I manage to see one of the children, the one who took the carrots, enter the house reach to see a kind passing through a door of a house, which looks soo shabby that I could throw it down with just a flosh of air from my mouth!

"There you are!" And when I enter, I see something crawling to the floor. . A floor so dirty I can´t even help but gaggle.

The house is just as ruin from the outside, the walls are cracked, and splats of something dark red, I don´t are . . something stinky throught the floor, where rats and even cockroaches are walking around. There is only one table with no seats. . . and is missing a leg. There are three persons there. The boy from earlier, an old woman, and a little child. They look awful, horrible!

They are eating the carrots and potatoes like rabit animals. This sight only reminds me of the feral dogs once chased me and my sisters. What do I do? What do I do? I can´t spend more money on this, and they don´t see like good people. . .but perhaps, maybe try to ask wouldn´t hurt?

I start slowly walking towards them, but just as I´m about to speak, the old woman leaps in front of me.

"Who the hell are you!?" The older woman snarls to me, angry, furious. Being closer to the door, the light reflects on her eyes. . they are White, completely White.

"I- I- your children took-" But she doesn´t let me end my sentence

"Get out of here, stupid brat!"

"Those are my carrots-"

"Get out, Get out! GET OUT OR I WILL KILL YOU!" from her rags she takes a knife which shines with the dark of the room. I start to slowly back from her"Get out or I will eat you too!"

Finally I leave the house. . And she doesn´t follow me behind. . . oh god. . No matters how many times I see that. . I will never get used to it!

Why. . Why people have to suffer like that? How they reached to be like this?

"You won´t take my last piece of food!" I hear some screamings inside . . .and struggling. . _*_ _ **sob**_ _*. ._ I just duck against the wall of the house, trying to not to think in the horrible sight. That is so, so awful.. . So terrible. . _*_ _ **sob**_ _*. ._ I-I . .

I remember. I remember One talked about something. Something about humans and animals, how we were the same as animals in many things: When we are scared, we flee. When we are angry, we don´t think. When we are hungry, we take. Without even caring who goes harmed or killed. She told us these things every single time we tried to understand why people used to distrust us, why people tried to cheat on us, why people attacked us.

And because that, she said that a change was necessary. O-of course, these people were hungry, so hungry they decided to rob me! But is not their fault! They were dying of starvation! At least if they had asked. .I. .I would- I would definitely-

"ouch. . ." Seeing towards the street, I see the same child from earlier. . Oh god, his face is covered in blood! How did he got harmed?. . unless. . don´t tell me that witch-

"Oh are you ok!? Let me-"

"No!" And then he starts running, but this time, since I´m not carrying the baskets, I´m able to move a bit faster, enough for catch his hand and tossing him towards me, at the alley-between houses "Let me go! Let me go! I don´t wanna be-" No sir! You need help!

And so I hug him. . .

"Shhh. . . it´s ok. . I know. . I know you were hungry. . . I´m not angry. . How. _*_ _ **sob**_ _*-"_ No, I can´t breakdown like this in front of a children. I need to calm him!" You were starving, right? Do you want some fruit? I have something called peaches . . ."

* * *

Inside a blacksmith´s shop, an scene was occuring The glare her older sister One had gave her switching between her face and chest earlier told her why she was selected for this task. .

Now if only she was able to remember exactly what she was asked to buy. . And that was just half of her problems. It wasn´t working.

Her charms weren´t working

"Soo. . H-have you decided what are you gonna buy?" The blacksmith was a tall man, black with some shades of gray, indicating mid fifties. He was wearing a sleeveless gray shirt with a painted black collar. His arms were ripped, as result of years of working in the forge. It had been 15 minutes since he was dealing with the young client that had stumbled in his shop.

"Ah ~. . mister, how much would cost~?" Five was doing her best to lean so her curves could be seen by the shopkeeper. She was pointing at a sword that was behind the shopwindow of the counter.

"That would be 450 brass or 5 plates . No discussion"

"Oh~. . Mister. . I´m sure you could make a little discount. . If-an accident. . Ocurred-to-me" Then she sitted on the counter, getting awfully close to the man. However, he had proriorities, and a family to maintain.

"No. This is your last warning. Buy something or leave, I won´t hesitate in dumping you out of my shop by force"

"Tsk" Four clicked her tongle

This is how things were going: The first time the girl had came with an excuse to buy weapons for her travelling party, then at some point she started to talk about how attractive he was, which was odd to hear from a child, but still he shrugg it off. Then. . She started to say more and more. . .going into things he would only hear from a horny whore. And he didn´t like it. _´must be one of Gerald´s workers. . ._ _but that young?_

The blacksmith wouldn´t mind a lot being flirted by a woman. . . if she didn´t had almost the same face as her daughter. She was now 13, still a kid for him for gods sake!, of course, said daughter had black and slightly shorter hair, but the face was almost the same!. He sighed.

Meanwhile, Five returned to wander around the shop, her mind in a constant mental frown. How could a man reject her femenine charm so easily? Sure, she may be a little more than a toddler, and perhaps not so much experienced. but these days men didn´t care for age, but for looks. And she definitely was blessed in that department. She was even willing- no, she wanted to have a fun time with him.

 _´Oh well, his choice. . Now. . let´s attempt to remember. . .What did_ _O_ _ne asked to buy. . no. . she say I had to bargain. . And it was something made of steel. . . But my charms were defeated! Then how can I get what I need?. . . wait, come of thinking. . She also said we would use it for hunting our own meals. . .´_ Five was no longer smilling, now she was focused in thinking, eyes closed, and a hand under her chin.

The blacksmith then decided to drive off the young intoner, before she could even think of stealing something. She was probably also a rascal

It was then an idea crossed Five´s mind. A way to stay inside the shop at the same time she could figure out what she was trying to buy.

"Mister, do you have any idea what kind of thing you sell and is made of steel?" she asked, believing that giving the description that Ibrahim had said to her would help the shopkeeper to think what she had to buy.

At that question, the shopkeeper stood still, eyeing Five as she were an alien, who now was doing a confident smile, not teeth showing. . .did she really was asking that?. .

At first, he thought she was some horny teenager. . Then he started to think she was some sort of rascal. But now he was convinced.

"Are you some sort of retarded idiot?"

* * *

Meanwhile, in the middle plaza, Four and Three were waiting for the return of their sisters and Ibrahim. Three was sitted inside the wheelbarrow, staring the people that were passing close to them, her mind a puzzled about the people in town. Four however, wasn´t paying attention at all, as she was taking her time to discreetly bite her nails and look sideways if someone was looking. . .which was pointless since anyone cared about the outsiders at all.

"Why One. . . why did you left me behind with the weirdo here. . . you could have sended anyone else to stay here. . . Five is gonna screw it, I know, she is too full of herself in the head. . . I should have gone to buy to the blacksmith. . ." She was mumbling to herself, believing no one was hearing her. Unfortunely, Three was hearing her, but she decided to not care about it. Her sister was like this: Envious, green of envious as the clothes she wore and her eyes were.

Having wasted enough air in her internal rant, the twin-tail-haired intoner then shifted her thoughts towards Ibrahim. She was puzzled by him: Yesterday, he behaved a like a child, letting himself be convinced by the farse of yesterday, then eating like a animal just like Four. . Then the way he responded that question, no flushing or anything, just a straight, serious face. . .

It was true that no one of her sisters or herself had the guts to even talk to him directly, except for Five. She really didn´t had an idea of how to react to another traveller, much less a male. As far as she could think of, he could be making a ploy against them: The way he talked to One, as if adulating her, only showed that he wanted to gain her favor. No wonder her sister stood all night as watchman.

Four would be mindful of him too, she wouldn´t let One do all the job by herself. Five was an idiot, Three was just too absorted in her own world. And two. . . two could screw it up with her innocence.

Once she was done with her nails, she put her gloves back. . . such a pain. . . her blessing of having her nails grow quickly, she hated it. Anyone else had good blessings, why she had to receive such shitty thing!?. And then she turned towards the wheelbarrow to check how Three was doing.

Her heart almost fell from her chest when she saw that she was gone. One would kill her for this.

"That stupid runt!"

* * *

One had followed Ibrahim at the outskirts of the village, putting all her senses at the maximum, as a thought was knocking from the back of her head.

 _´It could be a trap´_

Noneless, Ibrahim inmediatly stopped. . In front of a tree. It had at least seven meters in height.

"Ok. . Here we are. . .you better watch your head. Something heavy could fall~"Then, without warning, the bard throwed his best kick to the tree. . . then the sound of something crashing to the ground was heard.

One turned her heard towards the item, it was a chest, a little chest no more big than one of the cest they had, and he saw Ibrahim taking out the key from his persona at the same time he was getting closer to the chest. Putting two and two, she realized what was happening: Ibrahim had withdrawned the key from that tavern in order to appropiate of the contents of this chest. Twisting the key inside the lock, he opened the chest.

"What is inside it?" She asked as she got closer to him. Once the chest had open, Ibrahim smiled and moved a way so One could observe.

"As I said, magic items" One observed a folded papper, some sort of circular device with a start draw inside and a piece of metal over it, as well several coins of gold and plate"Ah, bust, the bag did broke. ."

"W-what are these. . ?" One had never seen so much money before, not even in that occasion when she had to make a work for merchant.

"This. . Is my secret stash. I have been around this area for a good time, collecting wealth and storing it in this village in the middle of nowhere" Then he took a coin and showed it her"See these coins, the last time I was here, I left 400 gold coins, 250 plate coins, and 500 brass coins"

"That´s a lot. ."

"Yes it is" Then he positioned to one side of the chest and seated, and then sighned One to do the same "Good, then come. I need someone to help me count the coins" One glared at him, still suspicious about what she was seeing " You know how to count, right?"

"Yes"

"Until how much?"

"Does the numbers have a limit?"

"Only number of coins here. Come on" He finally seated, acclaiming to count the plate coins while Ibrahim was going to take care of the gold coins. The brass coins would be counted by the two, and then they would sum it.

It took them half an hour to complete the activity. It wasn´t really hoaxing for One, in fact, she enjoyed to repass how long she could count. However, a grimmace appeared in Ibrahim´s face. She also noticed too.

" 100 gold coins are missing. ." He said. Whoever had done this, he or she must had at some point followed Ibrahim. There was no way someone could found it by random.

"Are you sure you weren´t being followed during your visits to this chest?"

"Yeah. Once I go back to the village, I always return here after expending a few minutes inside, having the belief that if someone had followed me, then said stalker would inmediatly go towards the chest once I had leaved the outskirts"

"When was the last time you checked your stash?"

"The day after. ." Then a thought crossed his mind. . . Ibrahim did his best to reprend his fury and not yell. He only limited to make a snarl" That stupid ball of fat!" One automatically associated the expletitive with the tavern´s owner.

"You think Gerald did it?"

"He had the key since the beginning, and I give it to him after refilling my chest one last ime. There is no other way someone could have passed throught the lock. . " He said with repressed anger "And the fool thought I wouldn´t notice 100 coins missing!? Such nerve!" Ibrahim started to check the lock, only to confirm what he already knew"The lock has not been forced. He did it, only the one holding the key could have done this" Inmediatly, he proceeded to gather all the coins in a bag he had in his pockets, and he took the map and the round device. Finally, he passed the bag of coins to One, arguin that she could hide it better within her cloak. She noddled and complied "Come on, we need to confront him about this" He said as soon he passed the bag of coins

"I would prefer to not draw attention to us" One said. And to be fair, she had her reasons. He didn´t think of Ibrahim as a violent person, but should an incident occur, then there was no way she wouldn´t be noticed. . If she sticked with him, that is.

Looking back, Ibrahim look her at the eyes, orbs of red frowning with a glint of worry. He then sighed

"All right, you can return to the wheelbarrow with the others. This my problem, not yours, and I don´t have any right to drag you into this"

"I have your savings, you know?"

"Yes, so?"

"What makes you believe I won´t run away with my sisters while holding your savings?" Ibrahim eyed her, as if attempting to read her, but it was hard. .her face was completely stoic, slightly frowning, her lips pressed agaist each other.

"Are you seriously going to do it?" He asked, the air tensed up around them, and One flinched for a moment.

"No, but-"

"Then is enough for me. Come on, let´s return back to the village" The tensión had disappeared.

"You are way too much trusting of me" She finally admitted, sighing. Ibrahim for a moment decided to counter that reply, but it decided to not say anything. He instead insisted in saw it as a good signal, that One was willing to trust him, to her annoyance at least"But I will stay with you. You have yet to explain your plan to me"

"Don`t patronize me. . ." he responds, bitter. One ignores it, understanding why he was so pissed about. She would be upset if someone had robbed the items for she had worked hard for.

* * *

 **Took me so long. I have been working on another fics too, so my time is splitted. Also the test are coming again.**

 **Anyway, I realized how hard is to flesh out the intoners, especially when they were children. Luckly, I have the power of interpretation, so let´s asume that most intoners had their quirks toned down before their. . .growth.**

 **So, a tone of how their personalities I think they were when young, I will use words:**

 **One- Logical, Idealist, Proud.**

 **Two- Naive, Kind, Energetic.**

 **Three- Sloopy, Stoic, thoughtful**

 **Four- Jealous, paranoid, Sharp**

 **Five- Greedy, optimist, dumb.**

 **Working with Two dimensional characters can get really tricky. Writing this chapter made me realice of something: If you can´t understand how they think, then switch to third person perspective to describe their actions, not thoughts.**

 **Another thing I realized is that things are not gonna get thrilling until I reach the part were the party arrives to Lord´s Bass castle, so bear with me. I´m gonna make sure to develop a Little bit the five intoners, even thought the chapters will feel like filler.**

 **I hope you have enjoyed!**


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